My Birthday!

I had my Birthday last month. I had a great birthday. My friend made me a chocolate cake (my favorite) and we had a BBQ at her house the Friday before my Birthday (3 of my friends' husbands are also deployed now so we have dinner together on Friday nights). My husband gave me a wonderful Birthday present. He bought me a 1 hour massage for me and a friend. I took Annalisa. It was wonderful. I have never had a professional one (I get lots from my hubby when he is home) and it was very relaxing. It was fun taking a friend, too.

The BBQ was a lot of fun. The weather was warm but not as hot as it had been. The kids played in water, we had great food, and of course the best part was the cake. I am very grateful for such good friends.

School Open House!

We had Open house at Walter and Jem's school a couple of weeks ago. I took pictures of them in their class and with their teachers. Walter loves school. He always has. He is very much like me in that respect. He really likes his teacher and I am so happy that he is enjoying the school year so far.

Jem on the other hand "hates" school (quoting his own words). He seems to be having a difficult time adjusting back to school with a new teacher and all new students in his class. Jem never has dealt very well with change. He has a great teacher that he likes and he does great in class, he just doesn't like school. Getting him to do homework has always been a battle. It would take him 2 or 3 times as long as it should to get his homework done because of complaining, etc. So, a few weeks ago I resorted to bribery. I do not want to have to fight him for the rest of the school year. So, if he does his homework without complaining and does it in a timely manner, then at the end of the week, he gets to choose a rock or crystal from the treasure box I made for him. I ordered a bunch of crystals and rocks on line and he is so very excited about them. He doesn't complain and he does his homework quickly. It is amazing the transformation. If he is motivated, he can do it just fine. He even finished a whole book on his own that he would have refused to read before saying it was too hard. I was amazed. He is actually very smart. He just needs to be motivated. Last week he came home one day from school all excited about his day. They had a hands on science center involving worms. He loved it. Now if they could always have something science related he would love school. The last picture is the crystal geode he earned that week for doing his homework.

Legos and flowers!

I finally planted flowers in my front flower bed and bought two plants to spruce up my front porch.


I also stained my mailbox and started on the bench. The mailbox really needed it.


Something my older boys and I love to do together is build with legos. Rilla and Shirley are starting to enjoy it, too. I bought the train table at a garage sale this summer for 10 dollars. It is perfect for displaying our creations. We had so much fun this summer building with them. Gil's mom saved all his legos from when he was a kid and we have added to them.